Aer Lingus Fleet/ Routes Discussion Pt 2 (ALL possible routes included)

The 200 does have a trim tank. Same capacity as the 300 ~4900kg

No, the whole point was to increase the Max Take Off Weight to allow more fuel in the tanks at Max Zero Fuel Weight.

The MZFW of the HGW 300s is 171 tonnes. EI’s are configured for 313 paxs. A full load of paxs plus a decent cargo load will have you up towards MZFW. At MZFW you’re limited to ~71 tonnes of fuel which is ~5 tonnes less than full tanks without activating the centre tank.

For that reason, I believe very few (if any?) operators have activated the centre fuel tank option on the 300s. Any extra fuel in an activated centre tank would have to be traded for payload. Perhaps, the economics might work on a premium heavy configuration.

The 200s are configured for ~60 less paxs but the MZFW is ~1 tonne less. The tanks carry ~30 tonnes more fuel albeit the MTOW is ~9 tonnes less.

And the ones fitted for east coast are 317, definitely at the higher end of configurations , the A321neo is similar in that sense very dense configurations. The introduction of premium economy should bring that down a bit.

The old old configuration with only 24 in business had 327 total!

LAX reduced from 5 to 4 weekly from 9th of Jan to 28th of Feb 2026.

EI's HGW a330s (the latest models - last 4 I think) have requested 'paper weight limitations' meaning they are 'documented' to fly at a certain maximum weight (230T or something like that) which allows the airline to reduce it's airport/landing/navigation charges etc. They don't need any more than that so why pay more.

The actual airframe is capable of 242T operations, with a change to the documentation, and has all the bits and bobs, and certainly the centre fuel tank which is a core structural component the wings are bolted onto and traverses the entire aircraft centre width. It is deactivated as a fuel store as per previous posts (I'm guessing... I would have thought it was just limited... But don't have that definitive knowledge).

If you have to fully fuel an aircraft (all tanks) to get to your destination you are in fact burning fuel purely to carry that extra fuel, as that extra fuel has enormous weight, so very long routes that require a full load of fuel (all tanks filled) are suboptimal in terms of fuel efficiency. Every aircraft has a sweet spot/curve for fuel per passenger per km.

The fuel in trim tanks in the tail is used to balance the aircraft and adjust it's center of gravity by pumping fuel to/from the back to the center/wing tanks dynamically to ensure that aircraft is optimally balanced during flight, controller by the flight computer.

can anyone shed any light of possible new routes out of Cork. Friend of mine works there and he’s hearing Paris ( CDG) been looked at and maybe Prague with Ei. I read today that Air France are going to run CDG all year round, so that route sounds odd for EI.

Also I read EI going to use A330 on Dublin to Madrid in the winter, twice weekly, Fridays and Sundays. If 330 is been used either they are doing very well on that route or they are linking up with Iberia to South America

Do you have any guesses on what the EI A339 cabin plan might be like? seat count etc

The new business class seat has been chosen and may have already been shared internally or at least the basic specs. It's supposedly 1-2-1 with herringbone configuration, likely very similar to Iberia's XLR and JetBlue's Mint seat which is the Thompson Vantage Solo. A privacy door is optional on this design, I assume Aer Lingus will go without it.

PE will be installed at the same time and is only about 3 rows, no idea about the seat itself. The combination of a relatively small W and the herringbone config in J will help maintain the higher overall density Aer Lingus requires.

I'd hope they'd take the opportunity to update economy class too, makes sense to do a nose to tail retrofit when you consider some of those A330s are flying economy seats from 2007!

I'd expect the A330neo, if arriving in 2028, to look the exact same with the only differences being the Airbus features like the Airspace lighting, side panels and XL bins.

Good to know, thanks! I like the look of the new economy seat, those screens are definitely impressive and will be a big improvement for the A330 fleet.

I'm kinda hoping it's the new Vantage Nova product, although it doesn't specifically list the a330 as an option (787, 350, 777 listed in a video tagline).

No real reason other than launch customer of an Irish seat on an Irish airline, and it looks like a great, well thought out product.

Q: did EI launch the original Vantage with Thompson way back when?

Recaro have optimized their herringbone offering for the 330s sidewall profile recently... Fitting better into it's space, and giving a little more room.

Anywho… not like I'll be flying up there and we'll know soon enough.